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March Book Review by Sam Mitchell

Title: Answers to Questions About Old Jewelry 6th Edition

Author: Jeanenne Bell

Type of Book: Large Soft Bound

Average Price: $27.99

In or Out of Print: In Print

Number of Pages:557

Brief Description of Book: Jeanenne Bell Started this book 20 years ago with the 1st edition and has been adding to it over the years. The book covers history and styles with lots of pictures from 1840 to 1950. In this edition, Costume and Mexican jewelry and 100 years of Cameo’s has been added.

NOTE: Reviews Based on the following Scoring Measure:

1 Being “Forget It” and 10 Being “Must Have”

QUANTITY OF PICTURES:

    Comments: Book has lots of pictures, 2000 in all. Lots of examples.

SCORE: I give it a 7.

QUALITY OF PICTURES:

    Black and White Pictures? Yes

    Color? Yes

  How good are the pictures?         
   Pretty good pictures overall

    Are there close ups of the marks? No

    Comments: About 90% of the pictures are black and white. There are 3 color sections of pictures. 40 color pages in the middle of the book, 16 color pages of costume jewelry and 8 color pages on how to make jewelry in the back of the book. There are no pictures of marks on the pieces, but there is a small makers mark section in the back of the book.

SCORE: I give it a 7.

QUANTITY OF INFORMATION:

    Range of information offered? Very Good

    Is information thorough? Yes

    Comments: Information is very good through all the time periods covered. The Bonus is the pictures of the fashions and adds of the periods and popular stones and materials of the time periods.

SCORE: I give it a 8.

QUALITY OF INFORMATION:

    Accuracy (are there mistakes?): Yes

    Comments: Very good Accuracy overall, I found 1 mistake. The Bracelet on page 300 is identified as 1890's Art Nouveau Bracelet but you can see it is made up of 1940 and 1941 coins.

SCORE: I give it a 7.

VALUES LISTED:

    Are they helpful or realistic? Yes and No.

    Comments: I find that the pricing is totally inconsistent. There are pieces under priced and
most pieces are priced Astronomically. Maybe they were priced for sale on Saturn. If I could get these prices I would not be doing this book review. I would
be relaxing on the beach of my own island in the Bahamas.

SCORE: I give it a 2.

USER FRIENDLY:

    Is the book easy to read and follow? Yes

    Are things easy to find (table of contents/index)? Yes

    Comments: The book is really good here. There is lots of good history and information in every chapter and makes for good reading.

SCORE: I give it a 8.

TOTAL AVERAGE SCORE: 6.5

Is this a must have book? Yes

Overall Comments: If you Forget about the pricing and marks this becomes a great must have book if you are looking for history, information and styles with examples of jewelry from the 1800's and the early 1900's. The new sections on Costume and Mexican jewelry are minor with just some nice pictures. The section “100 Years of Cameos” would have been a nice addition if it had been in color!

I own a worn out copy!
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